February 24, 2018 | by Tim Wu

Tim Wu, Open Markets advisory board member, published an article in the New York Times explaining how an emphasis on consumer convenience can foster monopoly and homogeneity. As he writes:

Americans say they prize competition, a proliferation of choices, the little guy. Yet our taste for convenience begets more convenience, through a combination of the economics of scale and the power of habit. The easier it is to use Amazon, the more powerful Amazon becomes — and thus the easier it becomes to use Amazon. Convenience and monopoly seem to be natural bedfellows.